Tim Bresnan will replace Steven Finn in the England side for the first Test against India in Ahmedabad. Photograph: Gareth Copley/Getty Images

Enough is enough. It is time for the hostilities to start. England have been in India for around three weeks now, played as many warm-up matches and spent hours in practice. There has been heat and dust and noise, and bumping coach journeys. They have had their bodies massaged into shape and some their egos too. Each day of the final warm-up match, the psychologist Mark Bawden could be seen sitting in the shade with one player or another. Drawing on the experiences of those series against Pakistan and Sri Lanka this year, nothing has been left to chance. They are as ready as ever they will be.

Against that, they have encountered the usual phoney war conducted in the local media, in which, of course, they will be led to believe they will not be able to cope with spin on snake-pit pitches or take 20 wickets (as if the heroism of the bowlers in UAE and Sri Lanka was a figment of the imagination). Ravichandran Ashwin, a good bowler, but with only eight Tests to date, has been portrayed as a cross between Shane Warne, with his traditional new delivery for each series (generally another figment of the imagination), and Machiavelli. There is Sachin and Sehwag, while MS Dhoni's place at the head of the group remains unchallenged despite the embarrassment of a brace of four-nil whitewashes away to England and Australia. The whole preamble carries with it overtones of England's last trip to Australia where it is a wonder they bothered to turn up at all.

Unquestionably, all these elements make India an extremely hard place not just to play cricket but to prevail. This though is far from a great Indian side. One of the finest batting sides the game has seen, particularly at home, has fragmented, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman having gone to the commentary box and Ranji Trophy respectively. Neither Virender Sehwag nor Gautam Gambhir have made Test match centuries for two years. Tendulkar is in his 40th year and having his stumps rattled more than a player of his calibre ought. And the brilliant exponent of new ball and old, Zaheer Khan, is creaking and held together on a wing and prayer.

Hope is to be found, perhaps even the next batting genius, in Virat Kohli, and much is expected of Cheteshwar Pujara, who takes over Dravid's famous role at three. But even these two have played but 10 and five matches respectively. India's fielding is pedestrian at best. In short, cut through the hype and there is an opportunity for England of a kind that does not happen along very often.

Only in the case of Steven Finn have England's intentions been derailed. Finn's bowling was a triumph during England's unhappy one-day series in India a year ago, and he was expected to play a leading role in this. Recovery from the torn thigh muscle sustained in the tour opener has been remarkable but when it came to the deciding factor of whether hypothetically it would stand up to the possibility of, say, 25 overs on a fifth day in pursuit of a win, it was considered too great a risk. Finn trained but did not bowl in the team's final full-on session and can now be discounted until the second Test.

India have their own concerns after Ishant Sharma missed practice because of a stomach upset. Ashok Dinda, hoping to make his Test comeback after an ankle injury, has been called up as cover.

Meanwhile, it has become clear that this match will be played on a surface about which no one, not least the groundsman, has much of a clue. After the tedium of two drawn matches, against Sri Lanka in 2009 (in which the visitors made 760 for seven) and the following year, in which even Harbhajan Singh was able to make a century, it was decided to liven things up by relaying the pitch, something that was only accomplished as recently as September. Pitches can bed down very quickly in hot climates, but it would be astounding if this one, totally devoid of grass, did not break up at some stage, and probably sooner rather than later.

This would suit India's prescription while at the same time providing a conundrum for England for in anticipation they would have the three fundamental options, the first of which, dropping a batsman and playing two specialist spinners alongside three seamers can be discounted: England will need all the runs they can get while the bowlers have never been shy of wickets in subcontinental conditions. Three times England have gone into a match with only two seamers and with Graeme Swann and Monty Panesar in tandem and each time they have lost (that this is in no small part down to the failure of the batsmen does not mean it is not all contingent).

Of more relevance is the relative skills of the opposing batsmen. Indian batsmen thrive against spin where others do not but are often found wanting against any lateral movement from pacemen. The opposite tends to be true of England batsmen. So attempting to beat India using something against which they are particularly adept seems counterintuitive. Rather, they are likely to concentrate on gaining sufficient reverse swing (it does not have to be much) to apply pressure that way.

In the second innings of the final warm-up match, they managed to get the ball into good enough condition after nine overs and Tim Bresnan was able to make good use of it. It will be he who plays instead of Finn, and reverse, playing to their strengths rather than trying to match those of the opposition, will be England's key bowling strategy.